Johan Harihttp://www.ekklesia.co.uk/taxonomy/term/2180/all
enLiving in apocalyptic fearhttp://www.ekklesia.co.uk/cultureandreview/eurabia
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<p>The real problem of Islamism as a violent mutation within the Muslim faith is not well addressed by feeding ourselves paranoid fantasies</p>
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<p>A new book presenting a paranoid vision of an Islamist-dominated Europe has climbed into the New York Times bestseller list.</p>
<p>Johan Hari, who writes for The Independent newspaper, has reviewed Mark Steyn's <em>America Alone: the end of the world as we know it</em> for New Statesman magazine this week (<a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/200703120047" title="http://www.newstatesman.com/200703120047">http://www.newstatesman.com/200703120047</a>). Among other things, he takes apart its bogus demographics. He concludes:</p>
<p><em>Islamism (distinct from Islam) is indeed a fascistic menace, but Steyn offers a masterclass in how not to fight against it. True, he calls for Muslim moderation - but only after concluding that Muslim moderation is a contradiction in terms. He warns early in the book that "the religion [of Islam] itself is a political project - and in fact an imperial project". So why call simply for more moderate Muslim imperialism?</em></p>
<p>Steyn's true response to Islamism is to make democratic societies more like the one the Islamists want to build. "The Muslim critique of the west - that we're decadent vulgar narcissist fornicating sodomites - is not without more than a grain of truth," he writes, saying that the destruction of Europe's feminist and gay rights advances wouldn't especially bother him. ...</p>
<p>Europe cannot defeat the far-right poison of Islamic fundamentalism by turning to a parallel far-right mythology of its own. We have seen in the past invented conspiracies like the Protocols of the Elders of Mohammed peddled by Steyn. It is a startling indictment of the intellectual standards of the American right that they have welcomed this Eurabian fiction...</p>
<p>Also on Ekklesia: <a href="http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/features/article_061210radical.shtml">Making a meal of moderation?</a> by Colin Morris; <a href="http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/barrow/article_060920papal.shtml">Christendom remains the Pope's real fallibility</a> in his reponse to Islam; <a href="http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/news/columns/barrow/061012a">The veils governing our own thinking</a> - Simon Barrow; <a href="http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_05085blair.shtml">Blair challenged on religious extremist crack-down</a>.</p>
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<!-- google_ad_section_end -->People and PowerReligion and SocietyapocalypticEurabiafascismIslamismJohan HariMark SteynmuslimCulture and ReviewTue, 13 Mar 2007 08:07:01 +0000staff writers4792 at http://www.ekklesia.co.uk